By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury Division on Wednesday renewed a license that protects Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum from collectors in search of to grab the corporate’s property to recoup claims in opposition to the nation’s state oil agency.

The renewal would permit the supervisory board that oversees Citgo to proceed efforts to achieve settlements with practically a dozen corporations in search of an public sale of shares within the mother or father of the seventh-largest U.S. oil refiner.

A negotiating staff representing the South American nation has held settlement talks with a few of these collectors and holders of defaulted PDVSA bonds.

The U.S. has shielded Houston-based Citgo from collectors because the firm in 2019 severed ties with its final mother or father, Venezuela’s state oil agency Petroleos de Venezuela, which is managed by President Nicolas Maduro.

Wednesday’s Treasury license bars transactions in PDVSA debt via Oct. 19.

Horacio Medina, chief of the board that supervises Citgo, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Citgo declined to remark.

A gross sales course of for Citgo shares that would start as quickly as September is into consideration by a U.S. choose in Delaware. The proposed public sale could possibly be used to fulfill some $2.7 billion in claims for expropriation of Venezuelan property and judgments from Crystallex Worldwide, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:), Siemens Power and Crimson Tree Investments.

Six different firms even have attachments contingent on acquiring U.S. Treasury approval to grab property. Their judgments complete $3.46 billion. The six firms are: O-I Glass (NYSE:) , Huntington Ingalls (NYSE:) Industries, ACL1 Investments, Rusoro Mining, Gold Reserve and two Koch Industries models.

Citgo final yr posted a file $2.8 billion annual revenue, and a $937 million revenue within the first quarter, giving it room to barter funds with some collectors, which in complete are claiming greater than $20 billion.

Holders of PDVSA’s defaulted 2020 bonds, that are backed by a 50.1% stake in a Citgo mother or father, in 2020 received a court docket judgment permitting them to gather $1.9 billion in defaulted principal and curiosity funds. The group is asking a New York court docket to authorize using the corporate’s U.S. oil pipeline and refining property to assist settle debt restructuring negotiations.

If PDVSA loses an enchantment difficult the bonds’ validity, U.S. District Decide Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan might launch a maintain on that case. Venezuela this month misplaced a separate enchantment attempting to dam new collectors from attaching to the Delaware case.